When it comes to business strategy, public warehousing offers viable options that allow companies to introduce new products, enter new markets, handle business growth more efficiently, and test different marketing schemes without having to go full scale at the start.

Utilizing a public warehouse also enables businesses to better manage and control operations while growing revenue and increasing efficiency. By doing so, a company can realize overall profit to its bottom line.

In particular, there are five cost-effective solutions that a public warehouse with third-party logistics (3PL) services can provide to meet the various challenges that businesses face.

1. Seasonal Growth

The Challenge: Busy seasons are always demanding to businesses as they try to meet demand without running out of inventory or facing distribution delays. Seasonal demands also bring added costs to a business, including additional labor or overtime, purchasing expenses for goods and packaging supplies, and distribution and shipping costs.

The cost-effective solution: Use a 3PL, like Brendamour Warehousing, Distribution & Services. With a public warehouse, there are no long-term leases or yearly rental costs for services you’re only using for a few months or so a year. Rather, businesses pay only for the space they need, for as long as they need it.

Businesses also lower certain costs associated with seasonal growth because the 3PL price includes its staff and the resources necessary to receive and distribute your goods. And because warehousing, distribution, and logistics are the core functions of a 3PL public warehouse like Brendamour Warehousing, our services cost less than what your business would pay on its own because of the volume discount pricing arrangements we’ve made with partnering vendors and carriers.

As an added bonus, Brendamour has four huge public warehouse facilities, so no matter how much storage space your business needs, we have the room for your goods, even during high demand seasons.

2. New Product or Market Testing

The Challenge: Adding a new product to the supply chain or entering a new market or region can be a costly experiment for companies. Often times, the operations of a business does not allow for limited testing, which means it’s all in, sink or swim, an extremely costly endeavor if expected targets are not reached.

The cost-effective solution: A public warehouse 3PL can be used as a separate launchpad to test new products or markets so businesses can avoid increasing their overhead or going to full distribution during the testing stage.

Businesses can ship a limited number of goods direct from the manufacturer to the 3PL and indicate their distribution channels. The 3PL takes it from there, providing reports back to the business so it can track response, inventory and orders in real time.

For example, with Brendamour Warehousing, businesses can arrange for distribution of phased shipments. This enables businesses to tweak packaging or price points, measure the effectiveness of its marketing campaign, and gauge consumer response across various markets before investing a large sum of money in a countrywide or global rollout.

3. Fluctuating Inventory Space Requirements

The Challenge: Often times, a company’s inventory fluctuates, requiring more or less warehousing space. In other instances, goods may have different warehousing requirements, such as perishable goods, multi-line items that need to be stored next to each other for easy order picking, or goods or equipment that cannot be stored on racks.

Because of these varying requirements, businesses are seldom maximizing the amount of their existing storage space to operate efficiently.

The cost-effective solution: A public warehouse is the best option for addressing fluctuating inventory space because of its flexible accommodations. And since businesses only pay for the amount of square footage they use, this solution lowers the utility costs they spend on their own underused or overused facility.

The setup of a 3PL also allows businesses to request short term or flexible warehousing at any time, giving them the option to expand or reduce inventory based on demand to maximize profits.

4. Multichannel Distribution System

Challenge: A business needs to tap into other distribution channels to increase exposure, reach multiple markets, and meet the varying buying methods of its customers. However, for a business to effectively expand from one distribution channel to multiple ones means changing its current supply chain operations. It is a costly endeavor that requires a company to use significant capital.

The cost-effective solution: A 3PL warehouse is already set up to handle multichannel distribution, whether it’s direct to retailers and wholesalers, or direct to customers from direct mail promotions or catalog orders, telephone ordering, interactive television ads, or website purchases. Not matter the channel, it’s a seamless operation for the business and the customer.

For example, Brendamour Warehousing, Distribution & Services invests in the latest hardware and software to automate all aspects of distribution so businesses can track their inventory, orders, and returns in real time. With our warehousing, distribution and logistics services, businesses can realize multichannel distribution without having to use capital or face high financial costs.

5. Varying Product Needs

Challenge: Throughout the course of the year, it’s common for businesses to deal with different needs for its products. It may be an overflow of one product in inventory, product bundling for a special promotion, different labeling for a distribution channel, or special packaging. These varying product needs add additional costs and labor, and require more time and special handling that a business may not be able to accommodate.

The cost-effective solution: A 3PL is already equipped to handle unique processing, packing, or order fulfillment needs. For example, Brendamour Warehousing offers comprehensive warehousing, distribution, and logistics services, including light assembly work, inspection, custom packing, folding, labeling, and bulk mailing, just to name a few.

Outsourcing to a 3PL public warehouse is more economical for businesses because it has all the resources necessary to handle the diverse needs of goods in the most cost-effective manner. Those savings make it less costly for a business than doing it in-house.

Let Us Be Your Cost-Effective Solution

When it comes to saving money and increasing the bottom line, businesses have the best resource available to them with public warehousing. The advantages of a public warehouse are many and the cost-savings are substantial.

At Brendamour Warehousing, Distribution & Services, we work with businesses to customize a strategy that meets their needs. Let us show you how we can perform your company’s warehousing, distribution and logistics more efficiently and effectively. Contact us for a free consultation today.